Lewis Pugh, long-distance and cold-water swimmer, recounted his extraordinary feat of swimming across the North Pole in an effort to raise awareness for climate change. Melted ice in the Arctic afforded him the opportunity to swim 1 mile in the -1.7C water. TED Tweeters were awestruck by Pugh’s conviction and the footage of his swim alike:

Lewis Pugh: Climate change is real. We need to do something about it, right now. — tedtochina

Lewis Pugh: because of global warming, there is water at (or near) the North Pole, at least thanks to the ice breaker ship — kokoe2

Pugh wanted to swim across the North Pole to “shake the lapels of world leaders” on climate change. Have YOU ever heard of him? — ruthannharnisch

“It’s f**king freezing” – Lewis Pugh, Arctic swimmer — andrewgerrard

Lewis Pugh who swam one mile across the North Pole in freezing waters is on the stage. Female Tedsters are swooning — WiredUK

We must all walk to the end of our lives, turn around and ask the question ‘what world do we want to live in?’ (LP) — iamhelenharrop

Lewis Pugh, the epic cold-water swimmer and climate-change activist, has announced his next swim: a kilometer-long lap across a glacial lake at the top of Everest, in a pond of meltwater 17,000 feet up. He told me the swim will highlight climate-change issues in two massive countries bordering Everest, China and India. With their large […]

This past Monday, swimmer Diana Nyad made her fourth attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida. Though this attempt ended when weather and jellyfish conditions took a turn for the worse, we can look back at her talk from TEDMED 2011 to understand how she — and all of us — found “grace in the face […]